Lunar vehicles that didn't make the cut

In honor of NASA's new lunar lander design, the Altair, Air & Space Smithsonian is featuring a fine selection of lunar vehicle designs that never took off. The images and text are from Robert Godwin's "The Lunar Exploration Scrapbook: A Pictorial History of Lunar Vehicles," which sounds like a terrificly fun book to review as we set our sights on a new moon mission. Some of the book's art was culled from original photos, blueprints, and concept drawings while other images were recently rendered based on text descriptions of the machines. Seen here is the Chrysler Corporation's Manned Lunar Auxillary Vehicle (MLAV), a nuclear tricycle.

From the book excerpt in Air & Space:

The MLAV had a cargo tray 23 inches by 41 inches in size, and could be operated with a hand controller either by a riding astronaut or by remote control. A full size prototype was built and tested by Chrysler. The power source for this machine was to have been a SNAP 91 radioisotope thermoelectric generator, although it is not clear where this device would have been located. Other refinements would have included a television camera. The three wheels were tested with brushless DC motors which provided enough torque for its projected mission. Its primary use was as a "pack animal," but it could be used to carry one astronaut if required. The entire vehicle could be folded up flat.

Link to Air & Space, Link to buy The Lunar Exploration Scrapbook

[#1 posted by OM , January 16, 2008 1:26 PM]

...Oh, this is *nothing* compared to what we called the "Pogo Pod". This was essentially a dumbbell-shaped two-man pod with a really long rod mounted in the middle. The rod would act like a pogo stick, and the pod would bounce hundreds of yards from site to site. The real surprise is why this concept was never used by Mattel for their Major Matt Mason series. They practically used every *other* NASA proposal!

[#2 posted by Takuan , January 16, 2008 3:01 PM]

speaking of SNAPs, whatever happened to that one that fell into the Pacific?

[#3 posted by lava , January 16, 2008 3:50 PM]

Speaking of Major Matt, the guy on that trike looks just like him.

[#4 posted by splashfrog , January 16, 2008 4:38 PM]

I have dibbs on the band name "Nuclear Tricycle".

[#5 posted by Clouds Without Water , January 16, 2008 9:54 PM]

Check out my pic of this prototype Lunar Rover in Huntsville.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rdrcollection/116430815/

[#6 posted by OM , January 17, 2008 10:57 AM]

...That Lunar Winnebago made the rounds on sci.space.* last year, and we all had a laugh at that one. Apparently it was really never intended for serious consideration, so the real question is as to *why* it was built in the first place.

On the other hand, the thought of some old retired couple galavanting around the Ocean of Storms in one of these, taking in the sights between overnights at the KOA still draws a chuckle...